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Red card costly for FC Dallas against Houston

HOUSTON — It seemed like their luck was finally turning around. FC Dallas had just equalized and had ambitions of going on to win Saturday’s Texas Derby.

Then it happened again.

In the 63rd minute, just four minutes after Jackson’s game-tying goal, FCD were shown their fifth red card of the season for an off-the-ball incident between Jair Benitez and Colin Clark. Replays showed the FC Dallas left back’s arm go up as Clark made a run across the box and contact being made with Clark’s face.

“We did a great job of coming back and tying the game. It’s just the same old story for us,” Daniel Hernandez told reporters after the game. “We have guys getting a red card. I’ve had my own faults, my own red cards this year that I accept responsibility for, but it just can’t keep happening.”

The red card proved to be the impetus for Houston to push forward and score the game-winning goal in the 76th minute. The loss makes it 10 winless for FCD, tying a franchise record set in 2005.

It was a cruel fate for a Dallas team that probably deserved a point out of the match. Head coach Schellas Hyndman certainly believes that was the case.

“I don’t know that Houston could’ve beaten us if we weren’t down a man, but we sure as hell made it hard on ourselves again,” said Hyndman after the game. “A very disappointing part. Give Houston a lot of credit, they found a way to win the game.”

Despite the loss, there was optimism in the Dallas locker room about a performance in which they outshot the Dynamo 15-14, won the possession battle before the red card and continued to threaten even when down a man.

“Definitely on the possession side I thought we did a great job especially in the first half,” said Hernandez on the team’s performance. “Obviously the second half was a little different after the red card, but even after the red card we were still pushing up and had a few chances to score.”